Every[one]

Once again, we’re so glad to have you here, whether you’re in person or streaming in online. My name is Tim. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors, and we hope that after the service, you can stick around. I’ll be in the west lobby. I’d love to meet you. And just thank you for being here today, or those of you that are online. You can jump into the chat. There’s people there. They can answer any questions that you may have. It’s today we’re kicking off a brand new sermon series we’re calling the Segway. And one of the things that we do every single year is we have a sermon series that walks us through what we believe God has placed on our heart is our mission and vision as a congregation. And so we move this sermon series all around. We do it at different times of the year. And so for this year, we thought we would do it in conjunction with Step Out and Serve. And so if you’re a guest, this is a great sermon series to be a part of. You’re going to learn everything about us. You’re going to kind of learn our playbook.

You’re going to learn the way that we believe God is leading us to do church. In fact, next week, we’re not even going to have a church service. I know you’re all sat, aren’t you? Because we are so bought into the mission and vision that God has given us that we are just going to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community, and I’ll get into more of that. If you are a guest, go ahead and give it praise that. So here it is. This is this is Shepherd’s Gate 101. This is our mission statement. Those that know it. Can you say it boldly with me together. Let’s do this. We exist to impact the world with the love of Jesus. And this has been our mission statement since 2020. In fact, every church should have a mission statement that sounds something like this. Because really, all it is, is a rewording of Matthew eight or Matthew 28, 19 and 20 where Jesus gathers his close followers together right before he tells them to go launch the church, and he tells them that they are to go and to baptize, and to tell people of the hope they can have in Jesus.

And they do that through the one true God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And so every church on the planet, every church, has a Bible believing. If Jesus following church, that should be the bullseye. And that’s the bullseye here. Everything that we do, the ministry that we do is all through this lens. And it’s so important that we understand that. Now, what makes local congregations different is their vision statements and their vision statements. And our vision statement is what we believe specifically, God has called us to do as what we learned last week the ekklesia, the gathering of God’s people. And so our vision at Shepherd’s Gate are these three things that we will value everyone we meet, we will influence everywhere we go, and we will live generously with everything that we have. Those words are are purposely in brackets because it is a play on words. And so when we say everyone, that means that if you call Shepherd’s gate your home, that you as an individual believe you have been called by God to value every single person on this planet, that every person that you come in contact with, that every person that you hear about, that you really, truly, at the end of the day, will do whatever you can to honor them and to love them.

But also equally as important is that as a community of believers that we value everyone. So when guests come into our church, when we’re out serving in the community, and we’re representing our church, we want everyone to know how much they are loved and valued by us as a community. The second one is everywhere, and we go a lot of places. You had to drive to get here today. You have to drive and go to the grocery store. You have to drive and go to the shopping malls and all the things that you have to do throughout your day. For us, everywhere includes local missions. So all of our local mission partners and all of the places that we go to and or our neighborhoods, but it also includes global missions. And so we’re not afraid to have members get on airplanes and go to other countries. If God is opening up the door for us to be able to do that, and we’re blessed here at Shepherd’s Gate, that we even have people that serve as missionaries in other countries.

Now, this last one lived generously with everything we have oftentimes is kind of the most difficult one, even for the most seasoned Christian, to sometimes step into this reality and obviously with the words live generously. The first thought that goes through people’s mind is money. Oh, here we go. Money in pocket books for us. We believe your most valuable resource, your most valuable asset, actually isn’t your pocketbook. It’s your time. And so next weekend, our entire church is going to spend a weekend not meeting for worship, but we’re going to spend Saturday and Sunday out in our community at 42 sites all across metro Detroit, loving and serving people in a practical way. And the reason we do that is because we pray and hope that it opens the door for them to be receptive to the gospel. And so when we say everything, it is two fold. First, it’s our time that we willingly go and serve others. And secondly, obviously there is a financial aspect to this all throughout Scripture, God calls his people to give generously.

In fact, the church and God’s followers have given to God for nearly 5000 years that we respond out of what it is that he has given us, knowing and trusting that he owns it all anyways. And so he asks us then to give a portion. And that’s what helps fund and fuel the ministry that we do here at Shepherd’s Gate. And again, it all goes back to telling more and more people about Jesus. Another way you could say it is this we believe that God has called us to depopulate hell. How’s that sound? How many you got? Some neighbors that are going to hell. Anybody got some family members that you’re worried about? Anybody got a coworker or somebody else that you know needs to hear the hope they can have in Jesus? And the way that that’s going to come to them is by you spending time with them, and you praying for them, and you being willing to open your life to them. Now, it’s fascinating, is after Jesus gave the disciples this command in Matthew 2819 and 20 to go and make disciples and baptize them, teach them to obey everything I’ve commanded you.

He gives you the promise of the Holy Spirit that truly be with you, surely to the end of the age. He then ascended into heaven, and then they then are forced to have to go out and proclaim the gospel. But what’s fascinating is the early church didn’t start with a building or even a bank account. All they had were their lives to share. All they had were the testimonies of what they saw Jesus perform, and Jesus do with the three years that they spent with him on planet Earth. Now, some of you might say, well, that’s kind of an advantage that they had in the course. They were so bold and proclaim the gospel, and they got to meet Jesus and talk to Jesus and touch Jesus and all these other things. But really, you have to understand this. The very first Christians were a group of ordinary, everyday, imperfect people. And do you know the word imperfect? That’s just a polite way of saying sinner. Did you know that they were ordinary, everyday sinners? In fact, the sins of Jesus’s followers, his disciples, are actually recorded in Scripture. You can hear about the times that they doubted him.

You can hear the times that they actually talked back to him, like we get the humanity side of them, but we also get the God who comes and forgives them and restores them and strengthens them and commissions them to be his hands and feet everywhere that they go. And so we now follow that lineage. We follow that that heritage that’s been passed down to us. The passing of the faith that we too have an obligation. We too have a responsibility to go out and to love the people that God has already placed in our lives. Amen. So this means we shouldn’t hide out in our houses, or just come to church and play church every week and just be friends with the people in our families and in our church that God’s called us to so much more. He’s called us up into the lifestyle of living generously and sharing his love and his grace and his mercy. This morning, I want to walk through an encounter that Jesus had with a group of religious leaders of his time.

And it starts in Luke chapter 14, where he’s actually dining at the house of one of these guys that doesn’t believe that he’s the Messiah. He doesn’t have faith that he actually is the Savior of the world. And it look at what it says. They’re watching him carefully. And not only are they watching him, they’re listening to him because they’re trying to catch him. They’re trying to catch him saying something that isn’t actually in, in the Bible or in the Old Testament or something that would contradict it. So then they can point to the crowd and say, see, we told you he’s not the Messiah. See, we told you he’s not the Savior. And one of the things that Jesus uses out of his toolbox when he’s trying to help people understand who he is, and really the mission of what God has placed him on the earth to do. He does it in the form of parables. And so he starts telling the guy who invited him, which is super nice, that the guy invited him to his house.

He starts telling them this parable and he says, when you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors. Anybody have rich neighbors? At least they also invite you in return and you will be repaid. Hey, it’s easy to stick to to this inner circle that you have. It’s easy to just kind of become obsessed with those that you already have in your life. It’s a whole different thing to live outside of yourself or the safety of your community. Instead, Jesus says, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And when you do that, when you have those people to your house, when you open up your life, when you spend time with them, here is where the blessing is going to come from. All of a sudden you’re going to have this inner joy and peace.

That’s going to be hard to explain because you now have the heart of your God. You are living your life out and in the same way that Jesus lived his life out on this earth. And look at what it also says. By the way, they’re not going to repay you. These are people that don’t have the means to then invite you to their home. In fact, you’re never going to get an earthly blessing. Your blessing is going to get repaid. What it says here, the resurrection of the righteous. And what that means is that is the moment when God the Father looks to Jesus, and Jesus comes back to this earth once and for all, and takes believers to be with him in eternity. That’s what this is talking about. And sometimes this is hard for us because we live in a society that’s transactional. We’re so used to we do something and we get something in return. We buy something, and it brings this temporary kind of peace or joy. And then when that wears off, we go do something else, or we go do this, or we go do this, or we go do this.

And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, no, no. True joy. Two peace is going and serving those that can’t even help themselves. True joy, true peace, true true happiness comes from going and serving the least of these well. He continues his story that a certain man was preparing a great banquet, and he invited many guests. At the time of the banquet.He sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready. So think of this. This guy gets everything prepared. He’s going to pay for all the food. He’s got everything decked out. He’s got the servers ready. All that has to happen is they have to come to where he’s at. But look at what it says. But they all, like, began to make use of this excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field. I must go out and see it.

What do you think you should buy the you know, go see the field before you buy it. Please have me excused. Another said I have bought five yoke of oxen and I’m on my way to go. I have to go examine them. Please have me excuse. And another said, and maybe this is the one we can kind of give the guy a little bit of grace. I just got married. Therefore there’s no way I can not go now. Again, this is a made up story. Jesus trying to drive home a point. What are the excuses that are listed in Jesus’s parable? What’s the first one? It’s work and how often we hear this as an excuse. People that are workaholics their entire life, their entire being, is not based on who they are. It’s on what they do. And they don’t know how to turn it off. There’s people like this. They they’ll never retire. They will die with a tool or a computer in their hand. Their whole being is just wrapped up on work and work and work and work. And it’s sad because instead of being a child of God and their identity being in that, it’s in what they do, how many people that we know are obsessed with their possessions.

And it isn’t it funny that oftentimes because living in an affluent country and the opportunity to be able to have things, that the more possessions that you buy actually end up causing more difficulty in your life, because now you have more things that you have to maintain and take care of. And so we buy things or we are we add on, or we get second and third of this or that and we think, oh, this is going to be great. But then all of a sudden, what’s it doing? It’s absorbing more of your time because you have more possessions. And again, it’s not that any of those things are bad. It’s just if that becomes your focus in life, then there’s an issue. Thanks be to God. It’s 2025 and nobody hides behind their family. Nobody blames their spouse for not being able to come to church. Do they? And certainly nobody, especially our young families, ever blame their kids or their kids schedules. For not being available? No. There’s this tension. There’s this constant tension of of trying to figure out what this rhythm looks like and making sure that God is first and foremost in our lives. It’s interesting because the serving, the servant comes back in and reports to his master that none of them want to come.

They just came up with excuses. And so the master of the house becomes angry. We think of this, this righteous anger, and he says to the servant, go out quickly to the streets, in the lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and the crippled, and the blind and the lame. Go find those that can’t help themselves. Go find those that are lost and are broken. Go find those that need to be rescued. And what’s so amazing is that all of these people were actually available. All of these people were willing to come to the banquet because the servant says, man, you’re not going to believe this. Everything that you have commanded has been done, and there’s still room. There’s still room at the table. There’s still room at the feast. And so the master says to the servant, then go back out to the highways and to the far corners of the earth, and compel people to come in, because I want my house to be filled. Now it’s really important to understand the true meaning and purpose of this parable.

It’s not to go out and do charitable work. It’s not to just go out and help somebody and to be generous. This whole this whole parable is about one thing, and it’s about the salvation of people’s souls. What he is getting at is this is the person who has prepared the banquet is our Heavenly Father. He has done everything in the way that he has prepared that banquet is through his one and only son, Jesus, who came to this earth that lived a sinless life, that willingly went to the cross and died and took our sins upon himself, that while we were dead in our sins, he is the one that paid the price. He is the one that offered us grace and forgiveness. He was the one that took that step out of that tomb and declared victory over sin, death, and the devil. You and I do not have the ability to declare victory over those things. The only way that we can do that is through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That’s why this parable ends this way. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. This means that eternity does hang in the balance over and over again, that there are people, that when Jesus comes back in his churches, is gathered up into the sky, and those that have fall that have already died will be gathered up together with him in the clouds.

First Thessalonians tells us this, that there will likewise also be people that will be damned to hell, that heaven and hell are real places, and that we have a mandate from our God to go and to share Jesus, to value everyone, to influence everywhere, and to live generously with everything. This is so important, church, because our calling actually isn’t to save the lost. Did you know that? You and I don’t have the ability to save our dog or even a fish. We can’t save anything. The only person that can bring anybody to to faith and save a human soul is God and God. Our mode, our calling, is to go and to seek the lost. And the only way we can seek the loss is we have to get out of our homes. We have to go into the community. We have to go where people live. And what’s so crazy is several years ago now, it’s probably been a couple of decades. Churches and people and followers of Jesus would go into neighborhoods and they would knock on doors. Does anybody remember this? Has anyone ever participated in doing this? Now, if you go to your neighbor and you knock on the door, what happens right now?

The people. You don’t even talk to a human being. You talk to their ring doorbell and they just assume that you’re there to sell them something. Nobody uses the front door anymore. Our job is to figure out how is it that we can get into our community. How can we love you? How can we partner with people that we know are lost and hurting and broken because they don’t have Jesus in their life? See for us, step out and serve is not what we do, it’s who we are as a faith community and this is so important to understand this as we are about to launch out this next weekend, and to go to these sites and to share Jesus in a practical way, I give you two examples. I live in a community in a, neighborhood where we’re blessed that we have a community pool, and somehow I ended up on the board of the association. And so as a board member, you kind of feel this responsibility to, you know, participate in these kinds of things. And so yesterday, myself and another board member were down getting the pool ready, because if you don’t get the pool ready by Memorial weekend, there’s some mamas in that subdivision that come out guns blazing. And so here the two of us are, some of the other board members had other responsibilities and obligations.

And I said, yeah, I can be here. I’ll be here from eight to noon. I can be here from eight to noon. Eight, ten you need to noon. And at 5:05 p.m. we looked at each other and said, what are we still doing here? And it’s because we fear the moms in our community. What I wasn’t expecting to happen happened just yesterday because it was just the two of us. We had unprecedented time to talk, and the longer the day went, the more he actually began to open up and share about his life. And he began to share about his marriage. And he began to share about his three kids and where they’re at in what’s going on. The next thing you know, we’re in my car together. We’re going back with a storage unit. There was things that we had to take, and so now we’re driving in the car together and we’re doing all of these things. And it dawned on me, wait a second. Maybe the point of being here is so much greater than just making sure the pool area is clean, and we wash down the chairs for people to sit on. God, maybe you’re up to something more in this moment. And as I told you last week, I’m so excited about what’s going to happen for my family in my neighborhood. This coming Saturdays, we’re going to go to one of our neighbors, and we’re just going to love her in a practical way, and she’s going to be there, and her two kids are going to be there.

And the idea is to not just go in to help her do her landscaping that hasn’t been done in ten years or to go into, you know, fix the siding that’s coming off her house or to power wash the front of it or whatever else is on the project list. The most important thing that we can do in that moment is sit with her and talk to her. More importantly, listen to her and let her kids see that there’s a church in Shelby Township on 23 mile that’s willing to give up their most precious resource, their time, for no other reason than to share the love of Jesus. And I’m so proud of this church, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen this next weekend. Can you share some exciting news with you this morning? This has never happened in the 17 year history of us doing Step Out and Serve. Usually the Sunday before step out in serve, we still have sites that we need to have volunteers at, and there’s always these open positions. And so those people that have waited till the last minute, because there are people like that that are here and there’s people like that in our church, and we just want you to know we love you, okay?

But for whatever reason, no matter what it is, you always wait till the last minute to sign up. And so this morning, Kelly, you choose the one that’s doing all the administrative work, for the team that’s leading. Step out in serve. Give me a sticky note. And there was only three open positions. Not just sites, just three open positions. And we kind of figured that the 9:00 service, somebody was going to feel compelled to go and fill those three open positions. So you can see I do no longer have a sticky note. There are no open sites and there are no open positions for step out in serve this year. It’s mind blowing to me. This is incredible. You guys are awesome. You know, every other year. But prior to this, there were sites that we would just have to say no to. We just say, hey, people didn’t sign up for this site or that site, and so we will try to get to it later this summer or this fall, or we’ll put you on the list and hopefully be able to do your site next year. The fact that every single site in every single position is filled is a testimony of what it is that God is doing in and through you as a church. You know, people will ask me, you know, tell me. We talk about, you know, what’s going on. And and you give us updates on kind of the things that are happening here at the church.

And I can tell you this, you want to know my heart. Do you want to know what kind of church I want to be part of? I don’t need Shepherd’s Gate to be the biggest church in Metro Detroit, I really don’t. I just want to be known as the church that is the most generous church in Metro Detroit. And hear me when I say that it’s not because of money. It’s not because we can say, oh, here’s a thousand bucks to this organization, and here’s $5,000 to that organization. That’s not who we are. I want to be known as the most generous church because they say that’s the church that people that call that place home are willing to go out and to rub shoulders and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to people they don’t even know. And I believe that that’s what God is cultivating here. I believe that’s what God is going to continue to cultivate here in and through you. So you guys should give yourselves a hand this morning for how incredible you are. This is why we say that step out and serve is not a one time event, but it’s a life of discipleship. And yes, we have our weekend concentration that’s coming up, and we’re going to go and we’re going to love and serve people and that’s just a catalyst for some of you, is going to be the first time that you’ve ever been part of this.

And we’re praying that God is going to do something that and is going to launch a movement where this just becomes a part of who you are as you’re part of this church. Because the reality is, we have no idea how one moment might impact someone with the love of Jesus. And so today, we’re blessed to have Pastor Matt Cripps from Metro Life Church in good news going with us this morning. He’s right over here. He’s got some of his students with us. Can we give them a hand for being here? And one of the things we thought would be really cool for you as a church to see is what it looks like to have an ongoing partnership with some of our local mission partners that are reaching people and preaching Jesus and sharing the love of Jesus, over the years. And so when we go and do these things, really rising, the impact that it has, realizing what one we can can do in the hearts and the lives of people. And so we want you to watch this video together. Okay. So the building is going to be that great one to the right. All right. Pastor Matt, for maybe those at Shepherd’s Gate, they don’t know you. They’re new to our church. Maybe you just tell them a little bit about yourself and how you started in ministry. Well, again, I grew up. I was born and raised in the in Detroit.

Unfortunately, when I was born, my mother, she abandoned me from birth. And so I was raised in foster homes. Up until age seven, I was graciously blessed with two good, solid families that cared and loved me. And around eight, seven, I moved in with my dad, not too far from where we’re at right now. And, we, we lived in southwest Detroit up until his passing. He passed. And, when I was 20 years old, I gave my life to Jesus at the age of 19. And it was a radical, experience for me, you know, giving my life to the Lord. And so from there, I fell in love with Jesus. And so then, got involved in serving in the church, riding on busses and picking up children and families in the city developed a real passion and a joy to do that. And so from there, the Lord brought me down here to to, where we’re at now. And, my wife and I, we were missionaries to the city of Detroit. We were going to make a left at the stop sign. There’s the buildings right there to the left. But it’s is so crazy to me back here.

Wow, I haven’t been I haven’t been in this spot since the day we left. So, Pastor Matt, this is when you and I first met. We were both youth pastors at the time. I brought the youth group down from the suburbs. You had your youth group there, remember? We drive through the neighborhoods and we were passing out fliers and telling everyone that we were going to do VBS for the week. And it was crazy because the next day we would take that bus down the street and people would just give us their kids. Like, the kids would just come out of the houses and load up on the busses, with, with our students, our groups connected during those bus rides, their relationships were formed and developed. It’s a precious thing to see because initially you’re thinking, what’s going to happen, right? Right. God really blessed it. And, and it’s in all these years the Lord has established us, and you guys have been a great help to it, to all that we do. Well, that’s really where our friendship started. And then, we’re going to look later a little bit about what that’s led to today and how we continue to be partnered in ministry.

Yeah, it’s kingdom work, right? Try being kingdom minded, Trey. Right here to the right. Follow me. Right here. Left over here. Oh, yeah. There’s the unit there. Yeah. Oh my gosh. There’s still there. Yep. I would love to get those down. So Pastor Matt, after you, left the other building and came here, got open the door for you to do ministry here. This is, when Step Out and Serve started at Shepherds Gate. So our whole crew came down and really did, did a lot of stuff to the building. I know there was a lot of drywall, a lot of painting. You didn’t have air conditioning, so, you know, you were, you were pretty toasty in the summertime, and some guys figured out how to install a couple air conditioning units. Installing air units was a major milestone for us because for years and never having air. Right. So doing ministry, in the summer in a building that harbors that humidity, that he makes it very tough. But the air units at Shepherds Gate helped us to install changed the game for us. That was over the course of a couple of years because Step Out in Service started in 2009.

So I think it was like 2009 to 2011 and, and that whole era of the beginning of Step Out and sir. But then you were planning to stay here. I mean, you had made the investment. There were things there that were happening. You were doing incredible ministry. But then you you were kind of forced to leave, maybe, Tom, a little bit about what happened. We shared this building with the owner and, and so here we are at the main level, having ministry preach the gospel and tell people about Jesus. But the reality is, in the basement, you’ve got a sandwich shop there with people that are very questionable kind of folks. And while we’re having service, the reality is people lived in the basement and they would watch pornography, they would smoke weed, and we would smell it through the floors. Well, we’re in services. And so it became a place that became very difficult to stay. And so, we prayed and we asked the Lord, there’s got to be something else, Lord, is there anything else? And so God opened up the opportunity for us to be where we’re at now. But but we were here eight years, eight years, eight years.

Wow. Yeah. And you said you’ve been at this location now we we moved. We moved here. In 2000. In March of 2014. And so it’s been, now 11 years. So tell us a little bit about what it’s like to have an ongoing partnership, which is really what we wanted to focus on this year. When I think of the ongoing partnership that we have had established, way back to early 2000, and it’s reassuring and encouraging to know if there’s a project that needs to be done. We’ll present it to you guys. And you, you’ve never failed us yet. And so some of the projects again, you’re looking at a wall. Behind us are windows and having this wall in now. And of course the shades to the left makes it ministry opportunities more accessible because the windows with the lighting came in. Come in like on a Thursday service. When we have the youth here, it makes things pretty tough. But with the wall again, and that’s not not just the wall, it’s the materials that was used for the wall. It’s durable. And this was one step out on the serve project over a weekend several years ago. And look at it. It’s yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well maybe walk us through some of the other projects that you have.

Yeah. Let’s go take you right into the the prayer room. Some of the furniture actually came from Shepherds Gate. And so with the prayer room, Shepherds Gate was able to help us, get lighting in the room, get a drop ceiling, also, installed carpet. So in here, this is a children’s room. And shepherds gate came in and provided the air unit that you see in the corner and the window, paneling there as well. So, Pastor Matt, one of the years we came and did step out and serve weekend, one of your biggest needs was you couldn’t use any of the sinks in the kitchen because of the grease traps. You’re correct. We weren’t able to use or sinks, and there was an awful, awful smell in the kitchen. No one wanted to come in here. And so Shepherd’s Gate came out with some trucks and siphoned all the junk that was in there, took it all out of here, cleaned it up really good. And and then obviously we were able to get the things running and operating. And so that way we can, function like, like a kitchen should. And I think it’s important because that that was one weekend that some people were fabricating came.

And now here we are years later. And how much ministry has flowed out of this kitchen set. Absolutely. That that was done years ago. And we’re still benefiting today for the service of not just one weekend. But it’s been great seeing all the different projects that we’ve been able to partner with and do help you to continue to do ministry. But there’s also been a couple times when we’ve been able to come down and join you for community picnics and feed the community, have some bounce houses and just have some fun. Absolutely. You know, that that ultimately that’s what ministry is all about. I mean, the buildings are great and all the units and all the projects to the walls and, you know, putting up lighting, all those sorts of things are great. But it all comes down to ministering and loving people. That’s right. Well, thanks, Pastor Matt, thanks for taking us on a tour of the area and showing us all the churches that, that you’ve had the opportunity to serve at. And we know God’s not done with you yet. Oh, no, you’re not taking a job out of Detroit.

God has called you to Detroit now. Yeah, this is home. I sent you the story. Yes. I tell guy when I first came, he asked me. Oh, directly submit. Where do you see yourself? I said, you know what? As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to stay in Detroit and serving and loving families and children until. Until then, until I go home with the Lord. This is I love Detroit, you know, and I love that the that the Lord’s place this in an environment to reach children and families for Christ. And we have so much fun doing it. Well, thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for answering that call. And we want to continue to do everything that we can to support you, pray for you, even doing the practical things around here to to make this facility a place where people can come and hear about Jesus. Absolutely. Thank you. We love you guys. We love you so much. Again. Thank you brother. Again, we’re just so blessed to have Pastor Matt and some of his students with us this morning. And I wanted you just to hear just a few more things from him, because some of you saw something in that may have, stirred in your heart, like there may be something that the Holy Spirit’s doing where you want to go and check out the ministry that is taking place.

In, in, in through Good News Gang and Metro Life Church. So maybe we can just talk a little bit about what that would look like. Well, first and foremost, I just want to say thank you. And that we value and we appreciate and we love you. No amount of words will be able to ever express our gratitude for the love and the support that you’ve shown to a ministry in Detroit that you care. And so, every Saturday we do a lot of things, but specifically on Saturdays, what we do is we send out a fleet of busses, we call them battle tanks, and we send them all over the city, Detroit. And we’re bringing in children that unfortunately come from environments that are very tough, very difficult. But we like yourself. We’re shining the light of Jesus, and we’re showing the love of God, and we’re bringing him on his banner battle tanks, and we’re bringing him into our building. And our model is this we want each and every one of them to experience heaven, because a lot of them, unfortunately, experience the opposite. But that’s where we, as followers of Christ are to share the love of Jesus. So with that being said, we want to extend an invitation for you to come out and do a 4 or 5 hour mission trip to Detroit.

I promise you, you’ll be safe. You’re going to be okay. I was born and raised and I’m good. It’s so we have a good time. It’s loud. It’s awesome. Young people are cheering, loving Jesus. We have food. We have praise, we have games. But most importantly, we lift up the name of Jesus. And we couldn’t do it without support with from you all here at Shepherd’s Gate. And we just appreciate you. That’s awesome. We give God praise for that. And I think this is so important for them to hear, because when we were down filming, you said something about how ministry in Detroit has changed. And so maybe you just tell them a little bit about what that means, what churches and organizations have left and, and what is it specifically that you guys continue to target? Sure. Absolutely. Our hope and our and our mission is to establish ministries like Good News Gang all over Detroit. There is a great need to reach children, not just in the city of Detroit, but as we know, all over the world. And so we want to be able to partner and develop relationships with pastors all across Detroit.

We’ve already partnered with one in Southwest Detroit. We have a, a location where we serve children and we partner with the pastor and we pick up children in the afternoon. And so that’s our heartbeat. We want to reach children. We want to be able to influence them with the gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to direct them the right there into the right way. And knowing Jesus while they’re young and so that they can spare them from a whole lot of heartache and challenges later down the road. Also, if you visit our table, we have additional information. We would like to encourage you to sign up to receive a letter that we send out every month. We won’t pressure you for finances, but we do ask you to pray for us because it’s been tough in 25 years. Now that I’ve been there, I can tell you I can write several books. And so, But God has been faithful. He’s been good. And I’m thankful that it’s, that there’s a team that is around that that serves as well. They’re my real heroes. These are people that have regular jobs. They have families, but they commit themselves to serving the Lord in children, in Detroit.

And so on Thursday nights, we have a service at 7:00. But before our service, we have tutoring, discipleship tutoring. And so if you’d like to be involved. Wait. Now, our, our membership for tutoring is low. And so we really need additional help. Even if you can’t commit every single week, maybe give it once or twice a month. Get you in touch with some of our leadership that runs our tutoring ministry. We could use the extra assistance. So we’re just, again, so humbled and grateful to have this long term partnership to have you here today. And as he said, he will be available, he and his team will be out there at the table. So make sure you stop by and pick up some information and and just thank them for being here today. So can we give them another hand? And then over here on my left to your right is our Step out and Serve leadership team, as well as those, that have signed up that are going to be our site leaders as we’re going out. It’s how many sites is it? 42. I know you just 43 now. 43. Sites. And so we are just so thankful for them.

And we want to make sure that we say a special prayer over them and all of the participants for next week. And but can we give them a hand this morning as well for. For leading us and helping us, make these sites successful. And we’ve asked Pastor Matt if he would if you would close us, today with a special prayer for our leadership, our site leaders, and then all our participants next weekend. Hallelujah. Father, we just give you all the praise and glory. God, your word says that we are to go to go into all the world and to shine a light in the love of Jesus and Father. We pray for next week and Lord, we pray for safe travels. God, we pray that your spirit would move and God that you would provide divine appointments and opportunities to be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to share the love of God in a very tangible ways. And God, we thank you for every network and every ministry and every group. God that would benefit from the services of Shepherds Gate to step out and serve. And God, may your light shine in love with the enemies meant for harm. God, may you turn around for your good so that heaven would get bigger and help we get smaller. And those Lord that we pray, Lord, that those that see us and those that serve next weekend, may they see Christ in us. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Can we give God praise this morning?